main

Archive | August, 2016

We were thrilled to welcome Alexander Boswell, Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire to our factory last month. He brought with him not only an engraved bowl but also our official scroll. The bowl is engraved with the logo of the Queen’s Award and the official title which is: Queen’s Award for Enterprise- International Trade 2016. We were grateful for a precise speech and official presentation and then Charles Wemyss our CEO said a few words followed by photographs. We were joined by Val Letheren, the Chairman of Buckinghamshire County Council and Jenny Bloom, Chairman of Aylesbury Vale District Council. Many thanks to Joe Bradshaw Assistant Clerk to the Buckinghamshire Lieutenancy who organised all the VIPs so well. The bowl was handed to Alexander Boswell by the Aylesbury Sea Cadet of the Year.

We’re often asked how we managed to achieve such a striking increase in our export sales. Having worked through it we should know this. Looking back we narrowed the factors down to 5:

Firstly, we have a great product, that we keep developing. We target that 25% of our turnover comes from developments in the previous three years. For example, the LF05 size, was introduced in 2012 and soon became our most popular size. More recently, the refreshed VFF range with FlowPod display will be even more desirable.

Secondly, we have built up a terrific sales team, both in-house and with our distribution network abroad particularly in the US and South Korea. Our own Chris Ringer has swung many orders. His skill with the Shah Deniz 2 project was exemplary and 135 meters totalled £1.4m all told through 2 separate customers, aided by our great product and flexibility.

Thirdly, we made a big step forward on Chevron Jack St Malo in 2011/12 which laid the groundwork for meeting the ever increasing engineering challenges.

Fourthly, the Deepwater Horizon accident set new standards and introduced more caution to specifications.